Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren

The aspect of the banking regulatory bill that will benefit consumers most in the long term is, doubtlessly, the creation of a new consumer protection agency. Its critics can rant all they want about how the agency will be superfluous, that all it is adding is more paperwork, but perhaps they remember the international fraud cases, focused in America and Europe, last year. Or maybe they recall the US's experience with Bernie Madoff? Or even the shoddy business practices by Wall Street companies that abetted the recession. The agencies already in existence failed here, and they have failed in scores of other cases. The new organization can cover these gaps, protecting Americans from fraud and malpractice in an unprecedented way.

The only way, however, that this agency can operate effectively and not go the way of, for example, the Minerals Managment Service, is if the person heading up the agency truly is devoted to its purpose. The work of Elizabeth Warren, who has been deeply involved in the creation of the agency, puts her in the best position to lead the group.

If the agency is properly headed and effectively run, the regulations it enforces can truly protect Americans to a much further extent than any predecessors. And isn't that the most basic reason for progress in government for a functioning society?

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